Quote:
Originally Posted by Uncle Robin
The simple reality is, of course, that standardised orthography is simply a conspiracy foised on our ancestors by the lazy yobs at Caxton-era printeries who couldn't be bothered setting type for both eggs AND eyren  |
Also early English printing killed the Þ, used often as Th at the start of a word. So Ye Shoppe is actually The Shop. The Þ þ Ð and ð are still used in Icelandic.
Also originally there was no spacing for a paragraph start or between paragraphs. They used the Pilcrow ¶, but due to influence of earlier hand printing and illumination they often left a space to print it later, maybe in another colour, but often there wasn't time, or to save money they didn't so the indented paragraph was invented. A chapter often started with a drop cap, due to the influence of illumination. They need to be as dead as the Pilcrow (¶) as they slow reading comprehension. Rare since Victorian times.
The Dinkus is for a more significant paragraph break that is not a section break (§) anslo called silcrow. The Dinkus was also used occasionally till the 20th C. to indicate omitted content, where the ellipsis … is now used. It's still sometimes used to indicate censored content.
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The Pilcrow ¶ and Section break § are now hardly seen outside of legal documents. Some languages may have used § rather than ¶ to indicate paragraphs.
Then there is the dagger (†) for footnotes or to indicate a member is dead, but oddly it's not derived from the Christian cross, to mark death or extinction. It's rare now but I see it on some German language forums to indicate the poster is dead.